"I've gotten to the point where I'm not trying to predict that anymore," the Green Bay Packers general manager said of Favre's impending decision on whether to retire or return for his 16th NFL season. "Every day we do the best we can to make the Packers better. That's all we can do."

Thus, Thompson said he wasn't all verklempt when Favre didn't make any announcement about his future at last Saturday morning's news conference in Tunica, Miss.

"I don't think he planned to make some sort of announcement and then decided not to," Thompson said.

The next faux deadline for Favre to qualify for his $3 million roster bonus is Saturday, although the bonus isn't payable until September and the Packers don't have to pay it if Favre retires. The date has already been pushed back three times.

And at least publicly, Thompson claims that he's not letting the possibility that Favre won't have given him an answer by the time the NFL draft begins on April 29 bother him, either.

In fact, Thompson said that he won't let Favre's indecision affect what he does with the No. 5 overall pick when the Packers are on the clock 17 days from now.

While one cannot discount the likelihood that he may have just been posturing for the benefit of potential trade suitors, Thompson sounded pretty committed to the idea of taking the proverbial "best player available" - even if it's a quarterback.

Even though Thompson hates hypotheticals, he responded to this one: Favre hasn't made up his mind by draft day, and Texas quarterback Vince Young is still on the board at No. 5. With last year's first-round pick, Aaron Rodgers (No. 24 overall) on the roster and the possibility still there that Favre could come back, would he really take Young?

Yes he would, Thompson said - if he decided Young was the right player.

After all, remember the parallel Thompson has drawn twice now - once at the NFL scouting combine, and once after watching Young's on-campus workout along with coach Mike McCarthy on March 22 in Austin - about passing on Young being like the Portland Trail Blazers passing on a certain basketball legend in the 1984 NBA draft because they needed a big man, not a guard-forward.

"I'll go back to the Sam Bowie situation," Thompson said after Young's workout. "If you have a chance to get Michael Jordan, you get Michael Jordan."

Thompson disagreed with Favre's assertion that the quarterback will be "long gone" before the first-round pick makes an impact, saying he thought the Packers would get an impact player at No. 5. But Thompson vowed that whoever the Packers take at No. 5, the selection would be made independent of Favre's situation.

"We always look at the draft with a long-term view. You draft not based on who's going to line up in the minicamp, you draft based on how you want to see your team over the next several years," Thompson said. "Which is why you take the best player available. And that's what we'll do."